TOW#573 — Tips for better online presentations
Ever since working from home became the norm, so the number of online events has skyrocketed! Whichever way you turn, there’s some kind of online event or other. Thus far I’ve taken part in several dozen online presentations and what I’ve noticed and concluded is: proper chaos!
That chaos is not necessarily the fault of the presenters, participants, moderators or panelists, but the result of how an online event is actually organised.
What I’ve noticed is that, in general, even though people’s presentations and presentation skills may good, they haven’t prepared them well enough and that only further adds to the chaos. Here I mean all those who have only recently started presenting online, such as trainers, consultants, teaching staff, etc.
Therefore:
- Scheduling — you must schedule when the presentation will take place, how long it will be and make sure that each participant has received a link to the presentation.
- Technology — when you’re online, the technology is the most important thing you need to pay attention to:
• Internet — must be flawless, throughout the presentation.
• Computer — battery is full or you’re close to a power source, so you don’t run out of battery during the presentation.
• Camera and microphone — everyone can choose whether or not to be on camera, but their microphones must be turned off so that their background sounds don’t interrupt you. Ask everyone to turn off their microphone or do it for them.
• Presentation — go through it a few times, check out how to share your screen with others and see what it looks like (help from friends/colleagues). Make sure you think about the following as you’re preparing:
- Rules — before starting the presentation, set rules that everyone will have to follow during the online event:
• Interruptions — whatever you do, depending on the presentation and the audience, you need to decide on one of two options:
To allow interruptions at any time, but then you need to be well prepared because each interruption could take your presentation in a different direction. To present properly, you’ll need to have the whole presentation in front of you, or at least the skeleton, so that you can say everything. In this case, you must pay close attention to the timeframe, because many interruptions could mean that you won’t have time to say everything you planned.
To not allow interruptions during the presentation and have participants take notes and ask questions at the end if necessary. The danger here is that you’ll have to go back to different parts of the presentation and remember everything you said ☺
- Background — you won’t believe the kinds of things I’ve seen behind presenters lately, so pay attention to that too. Put either a white background or a banner/logo from the company you work for, but whatever you do just don’t have curtains or clothes hanging off the wardrobe behind you.
- Room — choose a room that’s quiet, where sound doesn’t reverberate and where no one will disturb you, i.e. won’t enter suddenly.
So, there are a lot of things that need to be done so that a presentation goes as well as possible, and I think very little attention is being paid to that right now. And that is, in fact, the bit that can ruin the whole presentation that you’ve been preparing for so much, and that we want to hear.
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
@kalinbabusku
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